It's extremely common for large amounts of players to join a Friends Chat and wear the same team cape during warbands, allowing them to easily overwhelm the warband combatants and lone players alike. This page assumes you are going alone.

Consider only doing warbands near the Dark Warriors' Fortress. It is significantly faster and safer to loot from that camp, and since there are only 3 possible locations it is not hard to find a world with a camp there. This way, you can save precious time by going to the spot before hand, wait for the server message (which is hidden by the game filter, so turn it off) which will reveal where the camp is (without needing to go to Quercus) and switch worlds when it's at somewhere else.

It is also extremely common for Friends Chats and lone griefers to intentionally break the summoning beam to deny other players supplies. Keep this in mind when doing warbands.

Summoning familiars tend to load earlier than players, giving you several more seconds to react if you see them.

It is possible for other players to attack you while you are looting the camp. While in combat, you cannot gather from the tents. Keep in mind that your familiar can also be attacked and killed.

Don't bring much more than 3 pieces of food, since you will be looting 25 supplies.

Disruption Shield can be used to block a single hit, but note that now it also works against monsters it means it is easy to waste it on aggressive skeletons on the way to the camp. It also costs more than a rocktail and takes up 3 valuable slots if you want to recast it during a warband.

The supplies for the same skill, when available, always appears in the same tent. The Farming and Smithing tents are to the south and can be noticeably safer in the Dark Warriors' Fortress camp.

When players log in, the camera automatically points south. Click the compass near the minimap to reset the camera so it can point north. This is useful because it is generally better to observe the state of the camp from the south.

Have your Friends List or Clan Chat interfaces open can allow you to switch worlds faster, but this can be less than effective if your clan has a homeworld and everyone is on it. Also, try to avoid joining people on inaccessible worlds (e.g. minimum skill total, VIP, clan citadel, etc.) or an EoC only/Legacy only world, depending on your setup.

Dragonhide armour is recommended if you want protection, as it offers decent magic defence and passable ranged defence, the only two combat styles likely to be seen used, while being fairly cheap.

If you don't want to risk even that, at a minimum, bring a cheap shield (e.g. Steel kiteshield) as the access to Resonance gives a significant advantage (Reflect and Barricade would be useful, but it is unlikely you will gain the necessary adrenaline).

Remember that you can be attacked while looting. Remain highly alert throughout looting however, as the camp can collapse due to time out or run out of supplies (no visual indication) without warning, leaving you vulnerable.

You cannot loot while in combat; this includes NPCs, so be careful not to accidentally click on the scorpions near the Dark Warriors' Fortress camp. Even combat abilities that do not require a target, such as Anticipation or Surge, will put you in combat stance and prevent you from looting or switching worlds, so try not to use them while about to reach a warband and make sure you don't have the abilities queued.

Activate Anticipation and Preparation immediately after finishing looting to greatly increase your chance of survival as you take 10% reduced damage and becomes immune to stuns for 10 seconds as well as each hit reducing the cooldown on Resonance, allowing you to negate the deadly binds of Binding Shot or Impact. Deflect Missiles would be the best to mitigate damage, but it also attracts unwanted attention. Switch to Deflect Magic if you are attacked by a mage.

Surge can be used to escape faster if used correctly. After a few runs, you should be able to be familiar with the route and know where you can use it without running into a dead tree or some other obstacle. Additionally, NPCs along the way, such as Skeletons, Bandits, and Scorpions can be used as a target for Barge if you wield a melee weapon.

Freedom can be used to negate Combust or Fragmentation Shot. However, generally player killers will use Combust/Fragmentation Shot at the beginning when you are immune to stuns (due to Anticipation) to take advantage of the double damage due to your movement. If they manage to match your subsequent Surge (which is not very often), they will usually try to use Binding Shot and Impact, and saving Freedom for this may be worth it.

It may be helpful to dedicate an ability bar to Warbands if you want to do them often. Useful defensive abilities would be Freedom, Anticipation, and Resonance (if you plan on bringing a shield). For mobility, Surge and Barge are both viable options, though Barge requires a melee weapon and a target to use.